I used to go to a buffet here in Indianapolis that had a really nice and simple tasting tomato sauce. It was very light and fresh and very tangy. It looked like they essentially crushed small tomatoes and simmered it for just a little bit.

I've got some cherry-size tomatoes in the home garden that will be ripe in a few days and I'm wanting to try making that sauce.

I'm not looking to make a thick, robust sauce here. Just something that accentuates the garden fresh taste and tickles the tangy buds.

I'm thinking a tiny bit of light olive oil, a pinch of kosher salt, fresh basil, maybe a little balsamic vinegar and lots of halved & crushed but not overcooked tomatoes. Anyone care to add their two cents? Am I missing anything?

nope, that sounds good ekim. just lay off the vinegar until the very end. only add it if the sauce needs it just before serving, almost as a seperate component of the dish.
you'll want to skin your tomatoes first, or else you'll get these little spikes of the rolled skin in your sauce that are unpleasent.

For the "tangy" part - try using lemon juice instead of balsamic vinegar. Not knowing what the sauce you had tasted like ... it's a crap shoot. Maybe it had anchovies, maybe not (they totally melt in a sauce) - some capers maybe ... lemon juice would be totally Italian for a twang.

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"It ain't what you don't know that gets you in trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." - Mark Twain

What do anchovies add? I always thought they were salty and oily. What else do they bring to the party?

You're probably thinking about some pizza you once had with anchovies that made you gasp for breath when you took a bite of one ... they were so salty ... and provided a reason to order another pitcher, or two, of beer.

An anchovie fillet or two, added in the early part of the sauce (when you're sauteing the onions and garlic for example) will melt and just add another flavor layer/component - something that you can't identify but you know it's there - and wonder what it is. It's like Worcestershire sauce - you don't taste the anchovies, do you?

It's impossible to tell you what was in the sauce you tasted ... I didn't taste it. From what I know of Italian cooking - the tangy zip would be more likely to come from lemon juice than balsamic vinegar (Italians tend to use lemon juice in cooking and save the Balsamic for a condiment to dress something) - and anchovies, as well as the capers, could also provide a background flavor in the zing .... it was just a thought.

If they place you tasted this sauce is still around - go back and try it again ... and ask for the manager and "rave" about how good the sauce is ... and say, "there's something in here I just can't put my finger on .... what's your recipe?"

9 times out of 10 if it's a small Mom-n-Pop place they will give it to you. Sometimes, you get some place like a famous TexMex place we have here in town (Joe T. Garcia's) and they don't let anyone outside the family know the recipe ... ARRGH!!!

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"It ain't what you don't know that gets you in trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." - Mark Twain